Basic drawing tips

This tutorial covers the rock bottoms of drawing and art stuff, I'll make specialized tutorials later.
All you need to have is zeal and patience. If drawing or the art of creation is your passion, it can only get better. The rest is experience and mileage. I hope I can help you to achieve a bit of the latter one, though i'm still learning myself.

The basic materials

When beginning, everything you need is a pencil and a clean sheet of paper of course. Getting a sketchbook is a good idea so that you have all your drawings together. The pencil hardness ranges from 9H (very hard) to 9B (very soft), H,F,HB and B are in the middle. Many people prefer softer pencils because they make dark, intense lines. I used HB (called #2 in the US) and the softer 2B for a long time, but now I use a harder H and find it comfortable. You can make light, easily erasable lines with it. Some people also use mechanical pencils with a replacable lead. Try out various pencils and see which ones you like.

I use kneaded erasers. You can shape them as you need and they don't leave any debris.

If you go more for the traditional illustration stuff, you should visit Patrick Shettlesworth's site at www.polykarbon.com, there are also other nice things to check out on it.

Confident and clean linework ?

I always wondered how experienced artists draw - quick, confident and precise lines. I tried to do it the same way but wasn't very succesful. My lines were shaky, undecisive, I often erased. Erasing isn't really bad (it's quite a need when you clean out the drawing actually), but having a good line technique is really helpful. I thought it cannot be learnt at all, that I simply don't have what it takes.

But after some time and a lot of practice I realised that my lines became actually a little better.
Hold the pencil as illustrated when doing lines in various directions (mirrored for left-handers of course). When doing short lines, move only the hand. This way the lines will be precise. For longer lines, move the hand together with the elbow. Drawing quick makes the lines smooth. I think the technique is a bit different for each artist.

Starting tips

• Look at other peoples art, study, copy it. Don't publicize the copies though, unless you've got the permission from the original artist.
• Experiment - don't wait for someone to tell you what and how to do. Go and try it by yourself. I learnt most of what I know from experimenting.
• But also try to listen to more experienced artists - they do it the way they do for good reason.
• Learn to draw realistically. Rather than drawing in a realistic style from the head, I mean perceiving the exact way things look like. It doesn't matter whether you're trying to draw (copy) an anime face or a chair. You've got to think about every angle and proportion, even subconciously. For me, it's: the slower the better. Don't hurry, take your time.
  If you're having difficulties with it, read "Drawing on the right side of the brain" from Betty Edwards which describes the whole process and how to learn it.
• When working, try to start with large areas first and work down to the details - when drawing, draw the big shapes lightly first, when painting, use big brushes first.
• Practice,be patient and don't take it too seriously :).